


Her Knight in Tiny Spandex

by SapphicScholar



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Smut, annoying colleagues to friends to lovers, earns its rating in chapter 6, gym AU meets youtuber AU, the gay just jumps out at you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:27:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26935102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphicScholar/pseuds/SapphicScholar
Summary: Trainers at Galaxy Fitness in this gym AU meets YouTuber social media AU, Alex and Maggie are partnered up and tasked with making a series of YouTube workout videos to attract new members after the Luthors open a deluxe gym down the block. J'onn just hopes they can bring in a few dozen new people to get out of the red. No one expects the online cult following Maggie and Alex will attract on lesbian twitter with their bickering, flirting, and looking ~respectfully~ at one another.
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer
Comments: 175
Kudos: 279
Collections: Sanvers Big Bang | 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Vianca has made some AMAZING artwork for this fic (specifically for chapters 6 and 7, so definitely a bit spoiler-y for those of you who don't want to know the ending in advance) - go check it out [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SanversBigBang2020/works/27136924) and make sure to show some love in the comments!

“Alex, do you have a minute?” J’onn called out.

“Yeah, just finished teaching, what’s up?”

He glanced over at the schedule pinned to the wall. “That’s the new interval training class, right?” Alex nodded. “How’s it going?”

“You know how the high-intensity lunch hour classes go. Full of very enthusiastic PTA mom types and a handful of people who work close enough to make it on their lunch breaks.” She shrugged. “The enthusiasm is nice, but sometimes I swear I could leave, and they’d keep going just to one up each other.”

“Well, Kara’s volunteered to take as many of the lunch hour classes as she can, though I still need her nights some days.”

“That’s just ’cause she’s desperately pining after one of those hot power suit moms,” Alex snorted. She waved off J’onn’s unvoiced question. “Anyway, what’s up? Did you need me to cover for someone again?”

“Actually, do you remember the publicist we brought in?”

Alex’s mood immediately soured. Her classes were _meant_ to be hard, and she didn’t appreciate being told that she needed to smile more and send off “positive vibes,” as if that was a thing she could simply make her face do. “What about her?”

“I know that you didn’t agree with everything she said,” he acknowledged, steepling his fingers on his desk, “but some of her suggestions for expanding brand recognition were helpful.”

“Okay…” He better not have taken her up on that idea she’d pitched to have the trainers take turns working out on the sidewalk and trying to talk to random passersby. She shuddered at the mere thought.

“I’d like us to make a series of at-home workout videos. We’ll post some for free on our new YouTube channel. There will be some kind of promotional offer for sharing our videos—waiving the new member fee or a discount on classes. If the videos are popular enough, I’m considering a subscription service to offer full classes online.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t a bad idea, actually. Then again, a random word generator could probably also get to something intelligent every once in a while. “Do you want me to record my HIIT class?”

“We probably will do one of them, but market research suggests viewers prefer videos with more than one instructor.” He lifted his shoulders in response to Alex’s furrowed brow. “Something about variety.”

“Okay, I’ll tell Kara.”

“Actually…” Alex’s shoulders slumped. Anything that came after an “actually” was never good. “We’re pairing you up with Maggie Sawyer. She’s one of our new yoga instructors.”

“I don’t do yoga.”

“Apparently workout videos for whole person wellness are currently ‘trendy.’” He looked about as pleased as Alex felt about quoting market research. “In any case, Maggie came highly recommended from a yoga studio in Gotham, and, having taken her classes myself, I assure you she is excellent.”

“Fine,” Alex grumbled. “Is she here now?”

“No, she taught a sunrise vinyasa class this morning”—the mere thought made Alex want to burrow under her blankets and die—“but I’ll make sure she sticks around to meet you tomorrow.”

\---

It wasn’t that Alex had forgotten about her meeting with Maggie. She hadn’t. Not really. But by the time she’d gotten her coffee and finished scheduling all of her personal training appointments for the week, she wasn’t exactly thinking about strangers who she’d have to share her class with.

So when she opened the door to Studio C and found a random woman perched on the half wall that ran along the back, she wasn’t quite expecting it.

“Hey, I think you probably have the wrong room. HIIT doesn’t start for another half hour.”

“Oh, I’m not a student.” She hopped off the wall, and Alex couldn’t quite help the quick up and down at expanses of lithe muscle on display. It was practically in her job description to observe bodies in motion and appreciate well-defined musculature.

The words took a moment to register. “Uh, in that case you definitely have the wrong room. This one is mine.”

“Apparently it’ll be ours in a few days.” The woman grinned up at Alex, who just blinked back at her, a little stunned by the dazzling smile and the still-vivid memory of lean legs. “I’m Maggie.”

“Maggie…oh! Maggie Sawyer. The yoga lady.”

Tilting her head to the side, Maggie narrowed her eyes playfully. “Sure, so long as I can call you the cardio lady.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “You really think all cardio is the same?”

“Why not? Bet you think there’s only one kind of yoga, and it’s all glorified stretching.”

Alex bit her tongue and tried to remember J’onn’s injunction to “be nice,” followed by the threat of a staff bonding retreat if she made any more of the new trainers cry. (Then again, he’d admitted she was right to scare off Mike, so really…was it an issue to be solved or a skill to be cultivated?)

Maggie smirked at Alex’s silence. “I hear we’re filming the first few videos early next week. Want to plan out our sets?”

“I can just take us through my 30-minute HIIT class routine, then you can do your thing and take care of cool down, yeah?”

“Alex.”

She glanced up and found Maggie glaring at her, arms folded across her chest. “What?”

“Yoga isn’t just stretching to shove at the end! Besides, the whole point of combining two teachers isn’t to do two totally separate back-to-back classes. J’onn said people wanted to see workouts that emphasize whole body wellness.”

“People also want to come to my class once a week for a few weeks and magically get six-pack abs.”

“Why are you being so difficult about this?”

Alex groaned. “It’s early, Sawyer. I’m trying to get into the zone to get a bunch of high-strung middle-aged ladies pumped about doing burpees. I’m not exactly in the mood to do lesson planning with someone who probably thinks exercise is good for the soul or something.”

“I’m not saying it has to be some transcendent experience.” Maggie stepped closer, edging her way into Alex’s space as her gaze ran along Alex’s tensed shoulders and her tightly clenched fists. “But it could certainly do something for all that pent-up anger… Maybe think about that before you get all dismissive.”

Alex crossed her arms and then, with an annoyed huff, uncrossed them and shook the tightness out of her hands.

Maggie smirked. “Have a good class, Danvers.”

Alex definitely didn’t stare at her ass as she left.

\---

With a loud huff, Alex flopped down onto Kara’s couch, swinging her legs up into Kara’s lap, only to have them pushed right back down to the ground. “Kara,” Alex whined. “I’ve had a long day.”

“What happened?”

“Maggie Sawyer happened.”

“The new yoga teacher?”

Alex let out a long-suffering sigh. “The very one. We got paired up for those new promotion video things.”

“Oh neat! I took a few of her classes last week, and she seemed great.”

“She’s not! She’s…annoying,” Alex finally settled on.

Kara snorted. “You think everyone’s annoying.”

“That’s not true. I like you. And J’onn.”

“Tell that to eighth grade you.”

“Okay, you were a total freakin’ brat then.”

Kara pursed her lips and arched an eyebrow.

“It’s not the same!”

“Sure, Jan.”

“Oh my god, you need to get off the internet. And stop spending so much time with Winn.”

“Actually, Lucy’s the one who sent me that one. Like…a dozen times.”

“Was this about you denying your massive, visible-from-space crush on hot mo—”

“We’re not talking about me right now, Alex,” Kara cut in, her cheeks flushed a light shade of pink. “Why’s Maggie so annoying?”

Alex let out a loud sigh. “She wants to turn this into some big thing where we sit around in a circle and make lesson plans and design this brand new ‘whole body wellness’ class together, and I can just tell she’s gonna want to do check ins and make the viewers, like, ask themselves how they’re feeling or some bullshit.”

“Well…”

“Not you too!”

“It’s not the worst thing in the world,” Kara shot back. “C’mon, you only ended up in your first kickboxing class as an alternative to those anger management classes the principal wanted you to take.”

Alex grinned. The classes had gone a long way in improving her form, and after she sent a kid twice her weight home crying for picking on Kara, it really _had_ solved the bullying issue. Sitting and talking about her feelings most certainly would not have.

“Maybe just give Maggie a chance. Plus, I heard the pair with the highest number of viewers at the end of the month gets first dibs on picking class times for the summer session.”

That was enough for Alex to perk up. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, J’onn’s pretty invested in this whole video thing. I think we’re losing more customers to that new gym Lillian opened up than he wants to admit.” Alex hummed in acknowledgment. She’d been worried about that after all the fancy marketing they’d rolled out before their grand opening. (Not that fancy marketing made for a better workout, but she knew people were stupid enough to fall for it.) “So just…try, okay? For J’onn?”

“Ugh, fine,” Alex sighed, flinging a hand over her forehead and dropping her head down to the pillow. “For J’onn and a whole season with no morning classes.”

“Oh please. Lucy and I are adorable. We’re clearly gonna win this challenge.”

“Oh you think so, do you?”

Kara grinned, popping an animal cracker in her mouth. “I know so. But I’m happy to make it a little more interesting if you want…”

“You’re on.”

“Loser picks up the tab on takeout for a week.”

“Make it a month.”

“You wanna foot the bill for my potstickers for that long?”

Alex extended her hand, clasping Kara’s in it. “More like you’re treating to that new Thai place that just opened up over on Main for four weeks. But deal.”

\---

Still, no amount of betting could make Alex enthusiastic about her 8am planning session with Maggie the day before they were due to film their first video class. She clutched her iced coffee close to her chest like it was her personal lifeline as she shuffled into the gym, nodding at some of the familiar faces waiting to check in at the front desk.

She practically collapsed onto the bench outside of Maggie’s studio as she waited for the last of her students to file out. When it was down to just one or two stragglers who were chatting with Maggie as they rolled up their mats, Alex slipped into the back of the room.

“Danvers!” Maggie called out, sounding far too chipper for the early hour.

Alex grunted in reply.

“Give me two seconds, okay?”

Another grunt.

When Maggie returned, she thrust a bag into Alex’s free hand. “Bagel. Not East coast quality, but it’s acceptable, and I’m pretty sure that’s the best we’re gonna get here.”

“Snob,” Alex muttered, but it was half-hearted as she bit into a bagel that was, she could admit, much better than the ones she was pretty sure Noonan’s imported in frozen. “Why’d we have to meet so early?”

“I volunteer at one of the schools.”

“Like with PTA stuff?”

“No. I offer some free classes for students who’ve gotten themselves marked down for behavioral issues. They’re not bad kids. Sometimes they’re angry, but”—Maggie shrugged—“kids have their reasons. And it’s never done anyone any good to get yelled at and thrown into a room to sit still and be quiet.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. So we do yoga, meditation, that kind of stuff. Sometimes I push them towards sports if they have the time and can afford the equipment.” She glanced down at the floor. “Show them some healthier ways to deal with that anger without just dismissing it.”

“That’s, uh, kinda cool of you.”

“Thank god. Don’t know what I would have done without your approval.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Sorry for trying to be nice.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get a whole new personality just for me, Danvers.”

“You’re impossible.”

“Right back at ya. Now, for our class I’ve been thinking…”

As Maggie pulled out a notebook with long lists of ideas scrawled out in blue pen, Alex thought maybe—just maybe—she wouldn’t be the absolute worst to work with.


	2. Chapter 2

Under the bright lights, Alex squirmed. For her part, Maggie seemed equally uncomfortable standing in the center of a mostly empty room as the camera woman adjusted the mic on her top.

“Is this, you know, gonna catch me breathing really heavily?” Maggie asked.

“We can edit some of that out.”

Maggie didn’t look particularly comforted, but she stopped trying to push it down lower.

Reassured that Alex and Maggie were good to go, Jo set herself up behind the camera, checking the angles and frame one more time. “Alright, we’ve got our scheduled break for the gym advertisement at the midway point, but otherwise, let’s try to film straight through. We’re not working with a fancy production company or anything, so things’ll look choppy if we keep cutting, alright?”

Alex and Maggie nodded in understanding as they both took their places and got a thumbs up from Jo.

“Then let’s get you ladies moving. I’ll start rolling in three…” She held up two fingers, one finger, then the red light flickered on.

“Hey everyone, and welcome to the first week of your at-home fitness challenge! I’m Maggie, and this is Alex, and we’re both trainers at National City’s downtown Galaxy Fitness. If you like what you see today and want to see more of us, be sure to leave a comment and let us know!” She glanced over at Alex, who cleared her throat and tried not to look as awkward as she felt.

“If you think you might want to take our in-person classes, you can share our video on social media for a discount on your first month’s membership.” Maggie smiled more broadly and arched an eyebrow at Alex, who, in a moment of panic, threw a double thumbs up at the camera, then promptly shoved her hands behind her back. She tried to ignore Maggie’s quiet snickering. “Anyway, uh, Maggie here teaches yoga and a few of our Pilates classes, and I teach kickboxing and some of our high intensity interval training classes.”

“Today,” Maggie cut in, sounding far more natural than Alex did—probably a benefit of being the one to do most of the scripting, “we’re gonna take you through a whole-body workout. We’ll do some of that high intensity cardio that Alex loves and break it up with poses that’ll really put your core strength to the test.”

Alex tried to remember to smile and found herself wishing she’d scripted her own sections with more than just the names of the exercises they’d be doing. _Just like class_ , Alex repeated to herself like a mantra. She did this every day, multiple times a day, even, and her students liked her well enough. “Alright, I wanna see you giving it your all! It’s a hard workout, but I know you guys are gonna kill it.”

Maggie cleared her throat, adding, “And remember that just by showing up, you’re already taking a huge step! Take care of yourself. Check in with your body throughout. Something doesn’t feel great? Just walk in place. Need a break? That’s alright, too—you can pause or step out for a glass of water, or even end early if you need to.”

Alex’s brow furrowed. “But do remember that part of HIIT training means we want to keep that intensity up.”

“So let’s have fun!” Maggie called out at the same time as Alex announced, “Let’s get to work!”

“Right,” they mumbled in unison.

Shaking her head, Maggie looked back at the camera and smiled. “Okay, let’s get our bodies moving, start to warm up.”

Things got easier as they made it through the warm-up, and Alex felt herself falling into a rhythm with Maggie as they took turns calling out instructions for the various exercises they’d mapped out. Still, she couldn’t quite help the roll of her eyes every time Maggie shot a thumbs up at the camera or yelled something like, “You’re doing great!” How did she know? And what’s so great about a few high knees? Alex liked to save encouragement for the one or two hardest moments in her classes, knowing when to make it count. Apparently Maggie was not a “praise in moderation” kind of woman.

As they shifted into their first exercise—a series of lunges—Alex grabbed a pair of free weights. “If you want to give yourself an extra challenge, really push yourself, see about grabbing a pair of 5 pounders.”

“Let yourself really sink into the stretch,” Maggie added. “Listen to your body. Make sure your knee is lined up over your ankle—don’t let it go too far forward.”

Alex nodded in agreement there, though she lost Maggie again when she started talking about the “beauty of balance.” It was just balance… So long as she didn’t fall on her ass, she had enough of it. But then Maggie was leading them into some yoga pose and telling them to channel that balance, to think about their lives, about how that balance could bleed out into other areas.

Alex scoffed and tried to disguise it as a cough. Then promptly stumbled and dropped her left foot back down to the ground.

“See, this is what happens when you lose focus,” Maggie said, her voice far too smug for Alex’s liking, and Alex fumed silently.

“Some of us don’t talk all through our workouts,” she grumbled, righting herself again.

“Now see, what Alex is doing is fine. But you really want to engage your core.” Maggie patted her own stomach, then turned to Alex. “See—can I adjust your pose?”

“Uh, I guess.” She didn’t really think her pose needed any work; she just needed to not have someone chattering away beside her.

No sooner had Alex nodded than Maggie had two warm hands on her, pulling her shoulders back and tapping at her abdominals with a reminder to, “Let that stability ground you.”

Alex flexed her abs without really thinking about it and caught Maggie’s grin. “Very nice, Danvers. Seems you’ll get some solid muscles going if you stick with her workouts,” she added with an ostentatious wink at the camera.

Alex prayed that her blush wouldn’t be visible on film.

Still, she got her revenge during a series of squats when Maggie’s form got a bit sloppy. “Come on! You can do it! Lower!” Alex barked, having shifted to face Maggie and keep an eye on her form.

“Drill sergeant that one is,” Maggie said with an obviously faked laugh, the sound thin and reedy. 

By the end, they were both sweaty and slightly frazzled from a combination of Alex’s high-intensity “give it all you got” surprise final round of exercises and a few yoga poses that put far more of Maggie’s ass on display than Alex had expected, leaving her off-balance and unsteady on her feet. Which led to more corrections from Maggie. Which only served to make Alex ever more sweaty and unsteady.

“That’s a wrap, ladies,” Jo called, looking half-ready to say something before she shook her head. “I’ll see you in a few days to film the next one.”

Once Jo had packed up her equipment, Maggie and Alex hesitated over their bags.

“Well,” Alex mumbled, “could’ve been worse.”

“High praise.”

“Oh sorry, did you want me to clap with you at the end?”

“We’re allowed to tell them they did a good job.”

“But maybe they didn’t! For all we know, they’re half-assing it, or just putting it on in the background to ogle two hot women.”

“You calling me hot, Danvers?”

“Fuck off. You know what I meant.”

“Do _you_ know what you meant?”

“I—” Alex let out a huff of annoyance as Maggie spun on her heel and left, a low laugh rumbling in her wake.

\---

Two days later, Alex found herself still rather distracted by thoughts of Maggie and the next video they would have to film together that Friday. Despite her early aversion to extra planning sessions, she’d decided that a bit more prep couldn’t hurt. She’d refused to watch their video when J’onn sent it to her for her approval before posting, but she could only assume from the “OH MY GOD ALEX” text she’d gotten from Lucy that she looked awkward and the whole thing was completely and utterly humiliating—a suspicion that was only confirmed when she found J’onn waiting for her after her 6pm kickboxing class.

“Hey,” she said, trying to look pleasant and put together and not at all like the stumbling disaster she had been during the first few minutes of their workout video.

“Do you have a few minutes?” J’onn asked.

Her shoulders slumped. “Yeah, okay. Look, if it’s about the video—”

“I wanted to make sure the experience was okay. I know you weren’t overly enthusiastic about the idea, but I’d like for you and Maggie to commit to a series of videos together.”

“What?”

“Beyond the three you committed to doing,” he clarified.

“But…why?”

“Have you looked at our YouTube page?” Alex shook her head, wondering if that was supposed to be part of her job description these days. “Ah. Well, I don’t know what you and Maggie did, but we’ve gotten dozens of new subscribers to our channel, and according to Winn, your video has been shared and liked and retwittered quite a few times.”

“What?” Alex repeated.

He shrugged. “Just keep doing…whatever it is you did. Apparently viewers like it.”

“Uh…okay.”

As soon as J’onn walked away, though, Alex whipped out her phone and sent a text to Kara: “Meeting with Kim H. for a private lesson now but please check twitter and find out if I’m the new laughingstock of the internet. Have I been memed???””

Panic at the idea of her sweaty face or her awkward double thumbs up going viral left Alex shaky and on edge through her whole session with Kim. Luckily she was able to disguise a fair amount of it as enthusiasm and too much caffeine, but by the end of the hour, her heart was pounding, and she felt sick to her stomach.

With trembling hands, she picked up her phone and found a series of texts from Kara.

 **Kara:** Wait why? What’s wrong??

 **Kara:** oh my god.

 **Kara:** no, you’re not a meme. Or like…nothing embarrassing. I don’t think.

 **Kara:** this is so much better.

 **Kara:** they found you on twitter. You and Maggie.

 **Kara:** oh my god these girls should work for the CIA. They have gone DEEP into your old social media!

Alex blinked down at the messages, trying to make sense of them. She vaguely remembered making a Twitter years back when she’d first been trying to drum up some business for her personal training sessions before joining Galaxy Fitness full time. There were probably a handful of silly stupid tweets from her early postgrad life that she wasn’t all too pleased about people finding, but she didn’t think there would be anything devastatingly embarrassing.

 **Alex:** So what? They found photos of that summer when I thought I could pull of Cameron Esposito’s old haircut?

 **Kara:** no

 **Kara:** well okay yes they did find those

 **Kara:** but that’s not the main thing.

 **Kara:** have you heard of lesbian twitter?

 **Alex:** …I mean, I know plenty of lesbians who have twitter accounts?

 **Kara:** no, not the same thing.

 **Kara:** point is, someone who saw your video shared it there bc they think you and Maggie are really cute and funny together (you are btw) and are hoping this is gonna turn into some fan fiction level stuff

 **Kara:** and then some other people found you guys on twitter, and I guess it’s pretty clear you’re both gay af

 **Alex:** wait Maggie’s gay??

 **Kara:** do you realize if I sold you out and started my own twitter I could get so many followers for that screenshot?

 **Alex:** okay I don’t get it? Like…they’re happy about having lesbians making workout videos?

 **Kara:** ugh no you’re not getting it. Hold on. Go look at the youtube comments. I’ve been screencapping the best ones, but you should get the full experience.

Pulling up the app, Alex studiously muted her phone, lest she hear any of her own awkward babbling. She scrolled down until she found the comments section, her jaw dropping as she saw that they had, apparently, amassed 104 comments already.

Some were innocuous—things like, “Great workout! Would love to see more from these two together please!”—and others were the kinds of slightly pervy nonsense that she had expected—“that ass tho.” A few, however, seemed to have zoomed in on tiny little details that Alex suspected would have taken two, maybe even three views to catch…and possibly some outside knowledge about her.

> _asdjkfalkdjf Maggie acting like she’s Jim on the office. LOOK AT THAT STARE INTO THE CAMERA_
> 
> _Alex at the 22-minute mark: “I am looking respectfully.”_
> 
> _Ma’am you managed to do 25 burpees barely breaking a sweat, but suddenly your face is bright red during yoga…_
> 
> _Maggie’s proud of us. Alex knows we’re sitting here eating crisps and watching this enemies to lovers slow burn play out on our laptop screens._
> 
> _@Alex what products do you use in your hair? It looks SO good shorter!_

Alex slumped back into her chair, still trying to process what she was seeing.

 **Alex:** do they think I have a crush on Maggie?

 **Kara:** oh boy

 **Kara:** you’re lucky I love you.

 **Alex:** hey! I don’t get it!

 **Kara:** look just…do your thing with Maggie tomorrow. Don’t get all weird about it.

 **Alex:** I wasn’t gonna get weird about it, but now that you’ve said something I totally will!

 **Kara:** It’s nothing bad. Really

 **Kara:** apparently I’m gonna be buying your takeout for a month, so focus on that horrible news

 **Alex:** horrible news for *you*

\---

Despite Kara’s insistence that everything was fine, Alex found herself on edge and hyper-self-conscious of her every look and movement the next day. Even before Jo arrived, she was snappish, yelling at James for leaving his bag out in the staff locker room and ignoring Maggie’s greeting entirely.

Of course, once the mics were on and the camera was rolling, she had no choice but to try to act like everything was normal and there weren’t going to be a couple hundred people on the internet whispering about her staring at Maggie’s butt.

“You okay?” Maggie asked while Jo was fixing one of the lights.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, of course. Fine.”

Maggie gave her an odd look, but she shook herself out of it once Jo gave them the go ahead to start.

“Welcome back to your at-home workout challenge! We loved all your enthusiasm in the comments and posts on Monday’s video and—”

“You saw?” Alex asked, her voice cracking on the second word.

Forcing a big smile, Maggie ignored Alex and continued on. “We’re hoping you like today’s as well!”

Alex stood there, blinking at the camera, until Maggie elbowed her in the side. “Oh and, uh, even if you’re not in National City but want to see more of us, we’ll be doing a full online class series with 10 brand new videos. Check out the link below for more information!” She tried for a smile and hoped it worked.

Once more, getting into the rhythm of the warm-up helped calm her down somewhat, and she was able to focus on getting the movements right instead of whatever weird things her face might be doing at any given moment.

Of course, that didn’t stop her from getting frazzled when Maggie made some joking comment about seeing more of Alex in the coming weeks, nor did it stop her from dropping her free weights when Maggie lightly grazed her hand along Alex’s back to remind the viewers to keep their backs straight and not rounded. She let out a loud, “Fuck,” as the weight just barely missed her toes, followed by a, “Shit, sorry!” and then an, “Oh fuck me,” that left Maggie cackling.

By the end of it, Alex practically sprinted out of the room to shower and change before Maggie could find her to ask what was wrong. Because honestly there were no good answers when her only options were: “You have really pretty eyes,” or, “Your hands are very soft,” or, “Did you really read the comments and see that they kind of think I have a crush on you, which I totally don’t, so let’s not make it weird because I definitely don’t, you know?”

\---

The next day, Alex ventured back online and found the YouTube commenters giggling at her clumsiness and the long string of bleeped out words.

She resolved that she would be at her very best that Monday and even texted Maggie with a slight change in plans that she hoped would be a way both to solicit new members for the gym and to put herself on steadier ground again.

Which was how, that Monday, they found themselves down in the kickboxing studio as Alex gave a filmed tour of the workout space before settling herself in front of one of the bags and getting a pair of gloves on.

“Alright, today I’m gonna walk you through some moves we learn in my intro to kickboxing classes. Now, I know some of my students have bags of their own, and if you’ve got one and know how to use it safely, feel free to join along with me. Otherwise, I’m gonna have Maggie demo the moves next to me without one.” Maggie waved at the camera, looking a bit out of her element for a change. “You can still get a great workout in and break a sweat, but you’ll need to make sure you’re being a bit more intentional with your movements. It can be really easy to soften up your punches or give some half-assed jabs when you’re not working against any resistance.”

For the next half hour, Alex took point as they worked through a series of jabs, crosses, hooks, and combination moves. For the first time since they’d started the videos, Alex felt like she was in her element and seized on the opportunity to tease Maggie about her “spaghetti arms” as they neared the end of the session, both of them feeling the burn after 30 minutes of pushing each other harder.

By the time they’d gotten to the end of their last round, they were both breathing heavily and trying to subtly cover their mics.

“Now, you’re gonna want to make sure you hydrate after that,” Alex said.

Maggie walked in slow back and forth loops, shaking out her arms and sipping from her water bottle as she went. “And keep yourself moving—bring your heart rate down slowly, okay? We’ll walk you through cool down and stretching in a few, but you don’t want that lactic acid building up.”

“And maybe towel off,” Alex added with a laugh, drawing her shirt up to wipe the sweat off her face and hoping she hadn’t looked like too much of a wreck on camera.

A choking sound caught Alex’s attention, and she ran over to Maggie, who had water all down the front of her shirt. “Shit, are you okay?”

“Fine, fine,” Maggie spluttered, waving her hand in front of her face.

“Are you—”

“Fine! Really,” Maggie managed, letting out one last cough before putting her water down. She smiled broadly and brought her hands together with a loud clap. “Alright, who’s ready for some stretches?”

That time, Maggie was the one out of the room before Jo had even finished taking the mic off of Alex’s shirt. Alex shrugged it off. Honestly, if Maggie was choking, she should’ve just asked to stop the filming. Still, Alex didn’t need her workout partner to die on her—not before they got the highest number of viewers, at least—so she started down towards the locker.

Only, Kara intercepted Alex and dragged her down to the spin studio where Kara’s lunch hour class was due to start soon enough.

“What’s up? Also have you seen Maggie?”

“No, but I found the best thing on the entire internet.”

“Is it that red panda video again? Because I get it. They’re super cute, but—”

“Nope!” Kara snorted. “So, uh, bad news: you’ve been memed.”

“No!”

“Good news, though, is that it’s freakin’ hilarious.”

“Ka-ra,” Alex whined. “Stop laughing!”

“I’ll try, but please at least look at these tweets. You make a pretty excellent reaction meme.”

Alex glanced down and found a slightly pixelated screencap of her giving a double thumbs up to the camera, her face contorted into a sad attempt at a smile that looked more like a grimace than anything else.

She flicked through the screencaps Kara had taken, finding her photo being used alongside tweets like “@LesbiansWhoLift: when your mom tells you her coworker’s son is single…” and “@deathbyclexa: when you hear about a show with lesbians and then find out it’s on the CW.”

“This is humiliating.”

“I mean…you’re like…a gay icon now.”

“An icon for gay disappointment, Kara!”

Kara poked Alex’s nose. “Chin up. It’s something. Maybe it’ll get you some likes on that dating app you never use but totally still have hidden in the ‘Finance’ folder on your phone.”

Alex leveled Kara with a stern glare. “No more snooping. And start saving up. I think my takeout tastes are about to get rather expensive.”

The sound of Kara’s whiny, “Alex,” followed her all the way down the hallway.

\---

The next day, after sending a series of indignant texts to Kara for using her face as a reaction meme in their family group chat, Alex settled down on the sofa with her computer, determined to be ahead of any news about their latest video this time.

She pulled up the YouTube page, shocked to find 247 comments when it had only been posted the night before. Well…at least they were definitely getting first dibs on the summer schedule. She began scrolling.

Some generic compliments. Something that looked like a multi-level marketing scam ad. A few people asking if Alex might also like to reenact the _Dirty Dancing_ lake scene lift with Maggie. Someone pointing out that Maggie was trying and failing to look respectfully.

Wait.

She scrolled back.

Maggie. Not her. _Maggie_.

After a moment’s deliberation, Alex decided it would be worth it to watch the video.

She still cringed at her own face staring back at her, but then she watched Maggie staring at her as she demonstrated some of the combinations on the bag. Huh. Well. That was a nice change of pace. Bit of a confidence booster really. Figuring that was what everyone was talking about, Alex closed out of the video and put it out of her mind.

At least until Kara sent her a link to a tweet that just read “same, maggie. same.” with a gif of Maggie completely missing her mouth with her water bottle and pouring it down her shirt as she stared at Alex’s exposed abs. And oh hey, she looked good there. Maybe she should make that her new profile photo on that stupid dating app…

Kara followed her text up with another a moment later: “So…you guys gonna ask each other out or just keep staring at each other on camera until one of your fans comes and pushes your faces together?”

“We work together,” Alex sent back, ignoring the little thrill that shot through her at the idea that maybe Maggie had been looking right back at her all along.


	3. Chapter 3

“What’s this?” Maggie asked, picking up the bag that had been dropped on the table in front of her.

“Lunch,” Alex said, pulling out the seat across from her and opening an identical bag. “That taco place down the block. Kara said you were a vegetarian, so I skipped the meat on yours.”

“Um…thanks. Any reason for this lunch?”

Alex shrugged. “Heard you skipped your break to go volunteer at the school. Figured you’d be hungry.”

Tilting her head to the side, Maggie looked over at Alex until she looked back.

“What? Do I have something on my face?”

“No…I just. I don’t know, I think I read you wrong.”

“Oh?”

“You know you’re kind of an asshole, right?”

“Hey!” Alex pressed a hand to her chest. “What do you mean ‘kind of’?”

Snorting, Maggie ducked her head down and opened her bag of takeout. With an air of studied nonchalance, she shrugged and added, “Thought you didn’t like me.”

“Not a you-specific thing. Don’t really like working with a partner in general.”

“Cheers to that,” Maggie muttered as she pulled out her first taco and took a large bite.

“Really? I figured all you touchy-feely yoga types loved that shit.”

“Just because I want people to take care of themselves doesn’t mean I want to work with them.” She paused, taco halfway to her mouth. “But you and me? I think we made a pretty good team, Danvers.”

“Yeah.” A smirk pulled up the corner of Alex’s mouth. “Just you, me, and my abs.”

Maggie promptly choked on a bite of food. “What?”

“Sorry, just a gif I found on Twitter.”

“What?” Maggie repeated.

Maggie’s eyes went wide as she took in the gif playing on a loop on Alex’s phone. “Is this where all my new Twitter followers came from?” she asked, her voice squeaking over the words.

While Alex laughed loudly, Maggie pulled out her own phone and began scrolling through the dozens of notifications she’d been ignoring, having largely stopped using the app many months ago.

Wiping tears from the corners of her eyes, Alex glanced over and watched Maggie’s horrified expression slowly morph into a teasing smirk. “What, uh, whatcha looking at?”

“Oh nothing. Just saving this great new reaction meme.”

Alex blanched.

“And some of these screenshots of you, uh, what’s the phrase? Looking respectfully?”

“I…”

“Perhaps I should stop wearing those little spandex shorts if they’re so distracting.”

Alex could feel her face flushing scarlet. “That is not the point.”

“Oh really?”

“You’re infuriating,” Alex huffed as she threw the last of her lunch back into the bag and stormed off.

\---

Maggie, as it turned out, did not stop wearing the little spandex shorts. In fact, they may have gotten even smaller, Alex thought, as she ostensibly cheered Maggie on while she demonstrated possible modifications of downward-facing dog for those who, like Alex, didn’t have quite enough flexibility to get their heels on the floor. (A string of YouTube commenters would later wonder if, perhaps, Alex genuinely forgot she was being filmed each and every time, or if she believed that somehow her blatant staring was not going to be picked up by the camera that time.)

Still, all things considered, Alex was pretty sure she was playing it cool. At least until Maggie explained to the viewers that Alex’s downward-facing dog was so poorly aligned it might actually hurt her. Which…rude. Alex felt no pain. Just a stretch. And a warm pulse of want that made her knees wobble whenever Maggie glanced over and grinned at her with those big brown eyes and those stupid dimples and those goddam tiny shorts.

But then Maggie was coming over and asking Alex if she could adjust her. Unthinkingly, Alex agreed.

“So, like we talked about, you might find that you can’t get your heels to touch the ground.”

Alex didn’t even have to glance back to know hers were rather far from it. Maybe they’d be touching if she were wearing stilettos, but…

“And that’s okay. But sometimes that means you end up straining other muscle groups to overcompensate or throwing yourself out of alignment. See how Alex’s back is rounded here? You don’t want that. Just like in plank, we want to see a flat back—no arching or curving. We’ll save that for our cat/cow stretches, right?” she added with a laugh.

And all of that made sense in theory. But then Maggie’s hands were on Alex’s hips and then sliding down her thighs towards her knees, and there were words somewhere—something about bending knees, and Alex swore maybe Maggie talked about a block, but that didn’t make sense because there were no blocks here, and why would they even have children’s toys lying around?

“Really squeeze those quads. Imagine you have someone there gently pulling you back by your hips,” Maggie explained.

Alex wondered exactly how deep a shade of scarlet the human face could turn. She also wondered if this was what all yoga was like. If so, she really should have started showing up to Maggie’s yoga classes the very first day she got hired. Or maybe she should ask for some private lessons… No! Bad!

A snort of laughter made Alex’s increasingly inappropriate train of thoughts screech to a halt.

“Huh?”

“We’re on to the next set, Danvers.” She turned to the camera, a cheeky smile on her face. “You’ll excuse her, I think she’s finding a newfound appreciation for, uh, yoga.”

Alex’s face flamed with humiliation, and she stuttered and stumbled her way through the next set in a way she hadn’t since the first class she ever taught back at her college gym.

By the end of the cool down, Alex’s whole body was thrumming with a heady mix of anger and embarrassment and arousal. Ignoring Maggie’s teasing jibes, Alex stormed off as soon as she’d given her mic back, not slowing until she’d reached the blessedly empty staff locker room.

Of course, Maggie couldn’t leave well enough alone and jogged in a moment later. “Hey, are you okay? You ran off back there.”

“Fine.”

“I mean…you don’t really seem fine. Did I—”

“Did you what? Humiliate me on camera? Then yeah. Yeah, you did.”

“Alex, I never meant to—”

“Save it.”

“Hey.” Maggie’s voice gentled as she reached out a hand, grabbing hold of Alex’s arm. “I’m sorry, really. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I was really just trying to help with the pose, since it’s an issue so many people have.”

“It’s not—I wasn’t uncomfortable about _that_ ,” Alex practically spat.

“Then what—”

“I get it, okay. You saw all the comments about my super obvious crush and thought it would be funny to get me all flustered, but it’s not. This is my job, and I’m trying to be a fucking professional here.”

Alex was too busy pacing to notice the play of emotions flashing across Maggie’s face.

“Alex,” Maggie ventured. “I—yeah, okay, I do know that the viewers think it’s cute that we look like, to use their words, oblivious idiots in love. But it’s only funny because we’re _both_ looking.”

Alex paused, her head starting to ache with the dull throb of a tension headache. “What are you saying?”

“They catch me getting flustered on camera just as much. Hell, you have a gif saved on your phone of me spilling water literally all over myself because you pulled your shirt up.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Oh my god,” Maggie groaned. “I think you’re super hot, Danvers. It’s that fucking simple.”

Alex blinked once. Then twice. She opened her mouth, then closed it without saying a word. Then, in a flash, she pulled Maggie in and kissed her soundly. All the noise and embarrassment and concerns vanished as her mind went blissfully silent, and all she could think about was how soft Maggie’s lips were and how they tasted just a little salty after a long workout and how much she would like to know what the rest of Maggie’s skin tasted like.

As that thought crashed into Alex, she stumbled backwards. “Shit, fuck, sorry! I—I didn’t mean—I should go. I’ll go. Yeah.”

“Alex!” Maggie yelled, but Alex was already out the door, around the corner, and halfway to the parking lot by then.


	4. Chapter 4

**Kara:** Why is everyone commenting on your latest video saying you and Maggie must be fighting?

 **Kara:** Is this why you blew me off for Potstickers and Pose night??

 **Kara:** Alex

 **Kara:** I’m showing up if you don’t answer

 **Alex:** it’s fine.

 **Alex:** seriously

Alex should have known better than to think Kara would simply accept that.

Fifteen minutes later, a knock sounded at her door. “I have a key, and I’m not afraid to use it!” Kara yelled from the hallway.

Hoping to avoid a scene with the neighbor who had already seen her coming home from the grocery store with little more than a bottle of whiskey and three pints of ice cream, Alex undid the deadbolt and dragged Kara inside. “I told you it was fine.”

Kara shrugged. “And I didn’t believe you. Besides, pizza is already on its way over here, and if I weren’t here, how could I steal the best slices?”

Alex glared, but it lacked any force. After days of spending all the time she wasn’t at work overanalyzing every interaction she’d ever had with Maggie, it might be nice to break up the monotony.

Within a few minutes of her arrival, Kara had made herself comfortable with a mug of tea and some of the cookies Alex had forgotten hiding last time Kara raided her apartment for snacks. With a wrinkle of her nose, Kara muttered something about the cookies being stale, though it didn’t stop her from popping another one in her mouth as she asked, “So, what happened with Maggie?”

“We kissed,” Alex blurted out. Apparently her subconscious had been wanting to tell people for days. “Or, no, I kissed her.”

“Oh, no.” Kara’s face fell, and she scooted closer to Alex on the couch. “She didn’t kiss you back?”

Alex’s mind drifted back to the way Maggie’s tongue had flicked along her lower lip, and she barely repressed a shiver at the memory. “No, she did.”

Kara furrowed her brow. “Sorry, I’m not following. What’s wrong?”

“I—it was a bad idea! We work together!”

“Oh, Alex,” Kara sighed. “What did you do?”

“Why do you assume _I_ did something?”

Kara just arched an eyebrow, and Alex thought Kara should really stop teaching all those lunch-hour classes. Clearly she was picking up on some of those power suits’ judgmental expressions.

“Fine, I kinda sorta…ran? I mean, obviously it was a mistake, and what if she didn’t want to kiss me? Like, just because she thinks I’m attractive doesn’t mean that she wants to—”

A knock at the door cut off Alex’s rambling.

“I’ll get it. And then we’re gonna eat pizza, and you can tell me why you ran away from a woman that looks at you the way Maggie does.” Before Alex could insist that it didn’t mean anything, Kara shook her head. “Trust me, I’ve watched all those videos. And yeah, okay, as your sister, the blatant checking you out thing is kinda weird. But she also laughs at your terrible jokes and smiles at you when you’re being all awkward on camera and is clearly head over heels for you.”

By the time they’d finished both the pizza and the last of the ice cream pints that Kara had fished out of Alex’s freezer, Alex felt a little less like she’d made a mistake of epic proportions in kissing Maggie (and a lot more like she’d probably made a mistake in running and avoiding the woman as best as she could for the following few days). She still wasn’t necessarily committed to the whole “total honesty” and “mature conversations” that Kara had suggested, but she did set her alarm early enough to be able to swing by that deli with the slightly better than average bagels and make it to the gym on time for Maggie’s yoga class to get out. And for now, that would have to be enough.

\---

As she paced back and forth in the hallway, waiting for Maggie’s sunrise vinyasa class to end, Alex started to wonder if this was a horrible mistake. Maybe she should have waited until they were next filming. Or waited to find Maggie outside of work. Or changed her name and gone blonde and fled the state.

But then the door was opening and people were leaving until finally Alex could hear Maggie alone in the room, humming slightly off-key under her breath as she put everything back in order.

She knocked softly on the door.

“Forget your—oh.” Maggie froze. “You’re not a student.”

“No.” Alex shuffled into the room, scuffing one of her sneakers along the floor. “I, uh, brought you a bagel. And a coffee. You know, in case the yoga wasn’t enough to wake you all the way up.”

With an uncertain smile, Maggie reached out and took them from Alex’s outstretched hands. “Thanks,” she said at the same time Alex blurted out, “Sorry.”

Rubbing at the back of her neck, Alex forced herself to keep going. “I, uh, I’m sorry for surprise kissing you. And then for running. And then for avoiding you.”

“Thanks for the apologies.”

Alex nodded.

Before the silence could become completely oppressive, Maggie held up her bagel. “It’s pretty nice out today. You wanna eat out back?”

“Uh, sure.”

Once they’d gotten settled on the little concrete bench, Maggie pulled her feet up and crossed them under her, turning to face Alex. “So what finally got you to break the silence?”

“Uh, honestly? Kara told me I was being stupid.”

Maggie let out a snort of laughter. “Remind me to buy your sister a coffee one of these days.”

“Buy her something chocolate, and she’ll tell me I’m stupid every morning.”

“Noted.”

“But, uh, I am…sorry, I mean. I just kinda assumed that you hadn’t wanted me to do…that. And that it was unprofessional, and I certainly should’ve asked first, and—”

“Hey, Danvers? Generally speaking, if I’m flirting with a lady and telling her to her face that I think she’s very attractive, I’m not gonna be mad if she acts on it.”

A blush tinged Alex’s cheeks a light shade of pink as she ducked her head. “Right. I guess I panicked a little.”

“A lot.” Alex glared, and Maggie beamed. “That’s more like the Danvers I know.”

“Anyway. As I was saying, I was trying to give you space. So it wouldn’t be weird. But I think that made it _more_ weird.”

“Yeah, I’d say.”

“So, um, will you accept my apology bagel?”

“Buy me a drink at that place you guys all go to for happy hour every week, and I’ll call it even.”

Alex nodded, feeling like a weight had finally been lifted off her chest. “Deal.”

“You did wake up pretty early to make it here on time after all.”

Alex hummed in agreement. “How was class today?”

“Good. It’s a nice group.”

“Always nice when your first class of the day is a good one.”

After glancing around to make sure it was just the two of them, Maggie whispered. “Yeah. I could do without a few of the people in my later classes, though.”

“Oh really?”

“I have one guy that’s just kinda…frustrating? Like, he doesn’t do anything egregious, but he’ll let out this loud huff when I give instructions if he thinks they’re not clear enough. And then make a big show about adjusting his own positions in a different way. I don’t know. He hasn’t done anything where I could justify telling him off. It’s more of a vibe, like an…I know so much better than you kinda deal.”

“Ugh, yeah, I know the type. I tend to just give them this look.” She put on her best scowl—the one that she used to give Winn back when he was hanging around Kara during the months before he and James finally figured their shit out. “No blinking. Just glaring. If you make eye contact long enough, they’ll either knock it off or leave your class.”

Maggie let out a loud laugh. “Can’t imagine you get many issues if you’re looking at the students like you might just kill them.”

“Not too many.” She nudged Maggie’s foot with her own. “Any other problem students, though?”

“You gonna show up and glare at them for me?”

Alex shrugged. “I would.”

“My knight in tiny spandex,” Maggie teased, and Alex’s heart thudded pleasantly at the thought. “But nah, nothing too bad. One of the more advanced students does try to correct some of the newer students, which I’ve had to ask her not to do, but otherwise just minor annoyances. People texting or phones going off during class—little stuff.”

“Well that’s good at least.”

They spent the next few minutes chatting amicably enough about their classes before Maggie had to leave for a private session. “Thanks for breakfast, Danvers.”

“Yeah, of course. And, uh, if you’re still up for that drink, I’ve got a 5pm HIIT class tomorrow, but I could go after.”

“You mean you don’t wanna get a little buzz going beforehand?” Maggie teased.

Soon enough, they’d ironed out the details, and Alex snuck out her phone to text a quick thumbs up to Kara before saying goodbye.

\---

Wednesday afternoon found Alex and Maggie seated across from one another in the dim lighting of Charlie’s, trading war stories about their worst clients and classes.

“Okay, okay,” Maggie said, waving a fry in the air. “Back when I was teaching at this college gym, they wanted me to do a cross between yoga and pilates, which, fine. I can bring in poses and stretches from both. But then they tell me it’s also supposed to have a cardio element. I ended up just making them run in place for a while at the start of class and calling it a day.”

Alex laughed, but shook her head. “No, no, but I think I win. I had this gig when I was first starting out where I was the kind of catch-all person—whatever they needed, subbed in for classes, all that. Anyway, I get a call one morning being like, ‘Danvers! We need you STAT!’ So I come running, right?” Maggie nods, leaning in to listen. “It’s a fucking Zumba class!”

“No!” Maggie let out a loud bark of laughter. “I can’t see you dancing.”

“I am an excellent dancer. But ya know, not this weird exercise cross thing. And the teacher had texted me this jumble of plans that I couldn’t make heads or tails of, so I had these students, like, correcting me all class. It was a total disaster.”

“Well clearly I’m gonna need to see you dance sometime so you can prove me wrong.”

Alex wondered if maybe she should have eaten more after teaching with the way her stomach swooped at the idea. “I, uh, yeah. Maybe. If I have enough drinks.”

“If you go dancing with me, maybe I’ll tell you my horror stories from the summer I somehow got stuck teaching a swim class.”

“Like, an aqua aerobics thing? Or are we talking kiddos splashing around with pool noodles?”

“The latter. And let me tell you: didn’t much like kids before that summer. Most certainly did not like them after. Ended up with two black eyes from rogue kickboards sent flying.”

“No!”

“Yup. I’ll take the single day I had to fill in for aqua aerobics over that any day. Just me and 15 old ladies kicking our legs up in the pool—total cakewalk.”

Eventually, the conversation drifted away from work and on to other topics, and by the time three hours had sped by, Alex wondered why she’d ever thought Maggie was the worst. Clearly, she was excellent. And had a great laugh. And such pretty hair. Alex found herself leaning forward. Maggie’s fingers were dancing along the inside of Alex’s wrist, sending pleasant tingles all up and down her arms and making her think that maybe if she just leaned in a little closer…

“Ladies, can we buy you two drinks?”

Alex blinked up at the burly guy standing in front of their table, interrupting what was _clearly_ a moment between them.

“We’re actually—” Maggie began, but Alex cut in, “Is that shirt from the new Luthor gym?”

He glanced down, then back at her with what he probably thought was a winning smile. “It is. I’m a fitness coach.” Alex could see him less-than-subtly trying to flex and watched as Maggie stifled a giggle. “You know, if you ever wanted to swing by, I could give you a tour, maybe get you into one of my private classes for a discount.”

“And don’t worry,” the other guy piped up, “he won’t go too hard on you or make you lift anything too heavy. You two look perfect as is.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t want to lift anything too heavy and ruin that, huh?” Maggie said, nudging Alex’s foot with her own under the table.

“I’m actually a trainer myself,” Alex said. “So is she.”

“Oh?” The second guy looked between them. “Let me guess… Spin class? Maybe some yoga?”

Maggie scowled.

Alex felt her hackles rise. No one but her got to tease Maggie about the yoga. Besides, as it turned out, yoga was kind of hard, and Maggie looked _really_ good doing yoga. “Look, thanks for the offer, but we’re fine.”

“C’mon, let yourselves have a little fun. You can always work it off in spin class tomorrow morning.”

With a loud huff, Maggie spun in her chair. “Broseph, she’s trying to let you down easy. We’re not interested. Not even a little. Also, she does kickboxing and could probably kick your ass.” Before they could say anything else, she added, “And stop skipping leg day. Seriously, those scrawny little calves are embarrassing if you’re gonna go around acting like god’s gift to women.”

Alex bit her lip to keep from laughing aloud at the emotions flickering across their faces. “I do a full-body strength training class if you ever want to work on it,” she added. “Plus, I could probably get you a discount.”

They stormed off, grumbling loudly about women who couldn’t appreciate them and finding hotter girls anyway.

Maggie held up her mostly empty glass. “To having stronger calves than that dude.”

“And a better gym to boot.”

They clinked glasses, downing the last of their drinks before deciding to call it a night so they wouldn’t be totally dead on their feet for their video the next day.

After that, though, drinks became a more regular occurrence. When the full group of Kara’s friends (who had, at some point along the way, become Alex’s friends, too) would go out, Maggie would join. And that was always fun. But what Alex really loved were the days when Maggie would pop by the staff break room to see if Alex was up for happy hour, which slowly became happy hour plus dinner or, on busy days, a quick lunch eaten between classes and private sessions.

According to Kara, viewers had noticed the disappearance of whatever awkwardness had cropped up between them, replaced with an easy camaraderie that, according to Twitter, was _clearly_ a flirtationship that may or may not be a real relationship yet. Alex had largely stopped reading the comments, though every so often Kara would send her a “best of” highlights reel, and (tragically) her face had become a common reaction meme in the staff group chat. Still, she wouldn’t trade a return to anonymity for this new…friendship. Or something. Whatever it was she and Maggie had, she didn’t want to lose it, and a tipsy Maggie had grabbed Alex’s hands and pretty much told her the same, so Alex was fairly certain she wasn’t alone in feeling whatever confusing blend of emotions she was feeling.

Still, the emotions felt manageable. She could be Maggie’s friend. And Maggie could be her friend. And they could both stare a little too long at each other on camera. (And off camera.) And they could get tipsy and share more about themselves than they did with most people. And touch each other’s hands and arms sometimes. But it was fine. Totally fine.

Until the dancing.

Because of course Maggie wouldn’t forget something like that.

And of course Alex couldn’t say no to Maggie’s pleading face—not with those big brown eyes.

Which was how they found themselves skipping Charlie’s one night in favor of a larger bar two blocks over that opened up its dance floor once happy hour ended. They lingered over drinks until the dance floor began to fill up—first with the very best dancers and the very drunkest patrons, but then, over time, a more sizable crowd gathered.

“Now or never,” Maggie said, reaching out a hand and wiggling her eyebrows.

Alex let out a long-suffering sigh but allowed herself to be pulled to the floor.

The first song was awkward, both of them a little too stiff and unsure of their place with the other. But as the songs went by and the floor filled up and the drinks kicked in, Alex felt herself loosening up, dancing a little more freely, her arms and legs grazing against Maggie’s as she moved. And Maggie, in turn, seemed to breathe a little more easily, shifting to be just a little closer to Alex, letting her fingers dance up and along Alex’s hips every now and then and making Alex’s heart stutter in her chest.

By the time someone bumped into Maggie, sending her into Alex’s chest, the closeness no longer seemed to require an immediate distancing. Instead, Alex let herself sway and found one of Maggie’s hips with her hand, dragging her along in a slow, sensual rhythm that had them both grasping at one another as they drew closer and closer.

The music wasn’t quite loud enough to cover the hitch in Maggie’s breathing, and the lights weren’t quite low enough to mask the flush on Alex’s cheeks or the way her pupils were blown wide with want.

“I should, uh—bathroom. Yeah. Bathroom. Just need a little air,” Maggie managed.

Alex followed Maggie off the dance floor, walking back to the bathroom with her, not quite sure what she was doing.

“You good?” Alex asked once they were far enough from the dance floor that things had opened up a bit.

“Yeah. Or, no.” Maggie rubbed at her face and groaned. “What are we doing, Alex?”

“Um, dancing?”

Maggie arched an eyebrow. “Really? You dance like that when you’re dancing with Winn?”

With a huff, Alex ran a hand through her hair. “What do you want me to say?”

Taking a step closer, Maggie ran her fingers up Alex’s arm. “I want you to tell me that if I kiss you right now, you’re not gonna run off again.”

“I’m not wearing my running shoes today.”

“Alex.”

“If you want this—”

“I haven’t thought about anything but this for the last hour,” Maggie admitted, then ducked forward as she claimed Alex’s lips with her own.

And, oh, this was better. This was so much better than a surprise kiss. Because this time Alex _knew_ Maggie wanted her back. And then, as Maggie’s teeth scraped along her lower lip, Alex stopped thinking altogether. Because all that mattered was the feeling of Maggie’s mouth on hers and Maggie’s hands in her hair and Maggie’s thigh ever so slightly nudging between hers and making Alex’s whole body thrum with need.

Of course, no perfect moment could last forever, and soon enough someone was asking them if they were in the line for the bathroom and if not, could they kindly get the hell out of the way.

“Wow,” Alex whispered against Maggie’s lips.

“Yeah…I’m gonna want to do that again.”

“Maybe after a date? Like, a date where we both call it a date in advance?”

Maggie grinned and gave a little nod. “I think I could be amenable to that.” After a moment, she tilted her head to the side. “Does that mean we can’t do this again until then?”

“Well I wouldn’t want us to fall out of practice…”

Laughing softly, Maggie pushed up to her tiptoes and let her lips find Alex’s once more. They certainly wouldn’t want to get rusty.


	5. Chapter 5

**Alex:** dude.

**Alex:** I did it.

**Alex:** real date this weekend. But sort of a date today was SO GOOD

**Kara:** you’re lucky I love you. I was sound asleep

**Kara:** but congrats – tell me all about it tomorrow over the coffee and sticky bun you’ll be buying me for breakfast

\---

The next day at work, Lucy swatted Alex on the shoulder as she walked by. “You and Maggie couldn’t have gotten your shit together a week earlier? I lost 40 bucks in the pool.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t get all indignant. You two are clearly winning the comments contest with your sexual tension. The rest of us can at least make a little money off of it since we’ll be stuck with the morning classes.”

Deciding she was a little too hungover to care this early, Alex simply shrugged. “Who won, anyway?”

“James.”

“Ohh. That’s why he was so smiley this morning.”

“Yeah, I would be too if I’d just swept the pot.”

Alex nodded, barely stifling a yawn.

Lucy grinned. “Late night, Danvers?”

“Shut up.”

“I’m just saying… I’m not opposed to some more interesting water cooler chatter than the debate over the realism of whatever sci-fi movie Winn made James watch last weekend.”

“Yes, well, when I have something to say I’ll be sure you’re the last one I tell.”

“Hey!”

Alex winked as she strode off to find Kara and hand off the apology sticky bun shoved into the front pouch of her bag.

Of course, Lucy followed, determined to get the full story, and Alex didn’t have it within herself to care _that_ much. For as much as she professed to love gossip, Lucy hadn’t told a soul after Alex broke down crying in the sauna after a particularly nasty breakup the year before and had covered all of her shifts that day—even the private session with the awful social media influencer who, every week without fail, offered to pay Alex in “exposure” instead.

Still, Alex tried to play it cool when she found Kara—and lasted a full 30 seconds before she was gushing about getting to kiss Maggie and how well they’d fit and how excited she was about their date the next night, even though she still didn’t know where to go for it.

By the end of the conversation, they had thoroughly deconstructed every moment of the night and gone through dozens of possible date ideas until they circled back to a classic: dinner at a nice restaurant and a walk downtown, maybe to wander around til they found dessert or coffee. Well, Kara had suggested the ice cream parlor that was always way too packed with kids for Alex’s taste, and Lucy had suggested inviting Maggie upstairs for coffee with a wink and a nudge, and Alex figured a walk was a nice middle ground. And then if things went well…no, no reason to speculate in advance. It wouldn’t do to get her hopes up _too_ high.

Eventually, they all had to head to classes and sessions. Kara had her Saturday morning swim class—and according to Lucy, hot mom’s kid went, which explained why Kara’s hair looked suspiciously well done on a morning when she’d be diving into the water soon enough—and Lucy wanted a bit of time to add some new songs to her 10am spin playlist. Alex, for her part, had a brand new client for a one-on-one kickboxing lesson.

When she got down to the studio, she was surprised to see a young woman already there, leaning up against the wall with a bag slung over her shoulder.

“Hey, are you Layla?”

The woman’s head shot up, and her eyes widened slightly. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, that’s me.”

“Nice to meet you.” Alex stuck out a hand. “I’m Alex.”

“Layla. Or, well, you knew that.”

Alex nodded, gesturing for Layla to follow her into the room. “So, have you done any kind of boxing before?”

“A little. Um, at my college gym, they had a cardio kickboxing class.” Alex nodded as she dropped her stuff down and started prepping the things they’d need. “But I graduated last year and hadn’t found a new place until getting a membership here. So…”

“Alright, we’ll do some warmup, then review some moves, but I won’t start you on the super beginner level. Sound good?”

Layla bobbed her head up and down and was quick to follow along as Alex started leading her through a warmup and asking her questions, checking in about any injuries or areas that might give her issues.

“I was surprised you jumped right in with a private session—normally my students start out in my group fitness classes and then add on some lessons later,” Alex mentioned as they shifted into jumping jacks.

“Oh, um, the classes didn’t really work for my schedule. But I’d seen your videos. The online class, I mean!”

“Ah, J’onn’ll be happy to hear they’re reaching people. And I guess the discounted membership got you in the door, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Did you like them?”

“Uh…what?”

“The videos.”

“Oh! Yeah. They were great. Really great. Loved them.”

“Glad to hear it. We’ll do some arm circles now. Start going forward, yeah?”

After a moment or two, Layla cleared her throat. “Maggie seems great, too.”

Alex could feel her cheeks flush at the thought of Maggie and memories of dancing with Maggie and kissing Maggie. She felt Layla’s eyes on her and tried to breathe a little more heavily, hoping to pass it off as exertion. “Yeah.”

“I was thinking about trying to take one of her yoga classes.” She caught Alex’s gaze. “Do you know if she has one today?”

“Uh, let’s see, today’s Friday. She has off in the mornings but should be in for an end of the week destressing yoga thing at 5:30. She’s got morning classes most other days, though, and I could text her and see what she’s planning for the summer session if you want, since we’ve only got a few weeks left with the current schedule.” Layla shot her a megawatt smile and Alex shrugged off the gratitude. “Just a text, no big deal, really.”

\---

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/141303298@N07/50445994608/)

\---

On Saturday night, Alex did a few laps around the block so it didn’t look like she’d arrived pathetically early. Just…chivalrous first date etiquette levels of early.

Wiping her hands on her jeans and giving her hair one last check in the windows of the restaurant, Alex ducked inside, finding Maggie already seated to the side of the hostess’ stand.

“Oh, you’re here!”

“Yeah.” Maggie flashed a sheepish smile and gave a small shrug of her shoulders. “Think I walk a little faster when I’m excited about where I’m going.”

And just like that, any lingering nervousness fell away. “I get that. I was early that I’ve, uh, been doing laps around the block to kill some time,” Alex admitted with a laugh. “Should we grab a table?”

“Yes, please, I’m starving.”

Once they were seated, conversation came easily enough. Maggie talked about her classes, and Alex filled her in on her private sessions and the new student who might be joining one of the yoga classes next term.

After a pause to order their food and drinks, they moved onto Maggie’s volunteer work at the school, how she was liking National City, what things had been like in Gotham. And it wasn’t like Alex hated dating—at least not since coming out in college—but somehow everything just felt _easier_ with Maggie. There were no awkwardly long pauses in conversation. No moments of both starting to talk, then apologizing, then sitting in stilted silence until they figured it out. No sense that they were trying to turn a friendship into something that it wasn’t. Things just worked.

“What?” Maggie asked, and Alex realized she was grinning, possibly looking a little giddy.

“Nothing. Just…I’m having a really good time.”

“Yeah?”

Alex nodded.

“Me too.”

“Well that’s gotta be a good sign, right?” Alex laughed.

Later, as her back thudded against the door to her apartment and Maggie’s mouth left an impressive trail of marks down her neck, Alex decided it was absolutely a good sign—both of the date they’d had and the night still to come.

“You…inside…do you want to come inside?” Alex managed, her hands dropping just far enough down past Maggie’s waist to skirt along the line of very-inappropriate-for-the-hallway territory.

When Maggie pulled back, Alex couldn’t quite help the small whimper. “That’s up to you. I don’t wanna…don’t feel like you have to do anything today just because it’s our first official date.”

“Coming inside doesn’t mean anything more _has_ to happen,” Alex said, though she wasn’t quite sure she believed it. “But I don’t really wanna give my neighbors any more of a show than they’ve already gotten.”

“Right.” Maggie stepped back just enough to give Alex room to turn around and unlock the door, her hands trembling only slightly as Maggie’s fingers curled around her hips.

Once they made it through the door, Alex managed to ask, “Um, coffee?” before she realized that she had the woman who’d been making a starring appearance in her dreams for weeks standing right in front of her, hair mussed and lips swollen, and seriously _fuck_ coffee.

By the time they’d made it to the couch, they’d lost their shoes and jackets and nearly broken a lamp. But none of that mattered because Maggie’s lips were the soft, pliant counterpoint to the muscled thighs bracketing Alex’s own and pinning her to the couch.

Scrambling to untuck Maggie’s button up from impossibly tight jeans, Alex let out a sigh of relief as her hands founds impossibly smooth, warm skin. As Maggie’s mouth retraced its earlier route from Alex’s lips to her jaw and down her throat, Alex caressed and scratched at Maggie’s back by turns.

“Can I”—Alex gasped as Maggie’s teeth scraped along her pulse point—“fuck, Maggie.” She tangled a hand in Maggie’s hair, uncertain about whether she wanted to pull her away to remember what the hell she’d been trying to ask or hold her there forever. “Your shirt,” she finally remembered. “Can it come off?”

“Yeah,” Maggie breathed against Alex’s skin.

Button by button, Maggie’s shirt parted, until she was left in a silky black bra, shirt tossed somewhere behind them.

“Gorgeous,” Alex murmured as she ducked forward, mouthing along Maggie’s collarbones, dropping down and following the line of her bra with lips and tongue and teeth making up for the utter inadequacy of her words. Her hands curled around Maggie’s hips, fingers tracing along lines of toned muscle, skimming along the waistband of Maggie’s jeans, dipping beneath it for one teasing second at a time.

“Kiss me.”

And Alex had been known to ignore a direct order here and there, but she had no interest in saying no to that. So she lost herself in the feel of Maggie’s mouth, in the way her lips parted for Alex’s tongue, in the soft sighs and heady whimpers that left Alex reeling. By the time her hands had founds their way to Maggie’s chest, Maggie was panting, her hips rolling into Alex’s and her fingers tangled in Alex’s hair.

“I should—I should go. Right? I should go.”

Alex pulled back, slowly blinking as she tried to find something to say that wasn’t _fuck_ or _Maggie_ or _touch me_. “Uh…”

Maggie pressed a chaste kiss to Alex’s lips that nevertheless managed to do an impressive job at derailing all coherent thought once more.

“If I stay any longer, I’m gonna ask you to come to bed with me, and I want to take my time with us. Not, like, waiting forever—unless that’s what you want. But a little more time.”

All Alex could think was that it was remarkable that Maggie could sound so put together when Alex’s brain still hadn’t moved past “come to bed” and everything that might entail. “Okay. Yeah.”

Swinging one leg over Alex’s lap, Maggie stood and found her shirt. “I’m gonna plan our second date, if that’s something you want.”

Alex nodded.

“Awesome. I have some fun ideas. This one was really great, though.”

“Uh, cool. Yeah.” She blinked back to the present and stood, taking one of Maggie’s hands in her own and pressing one last lingering kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Well, I guess I’ll see you then.”

“Don’t forget our video tomorrow morning.”

“Oh. Shit. That’s early, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, Danvers. Eight in the morning.”

“Fuck me.”

“I want to.” The dazed look returned to Alex’s face. “But, you know, early morning. Kind of ruins my plans.”

“Right.”

“Also, you should maybe use some concealer tomorrow. Sorry.” She didn’t look particularly sorry, and Alex couldn’t find it within herself to regret any minute of the night.

“Mm, I bet.” The words were muffled as Alex kissed her way down Maggie’s neck, grinning when Maggie’s breath hitched and her grip around Alex’s arms tightened.

Alex nipped slightly.

“Fuck.” Maggie’s voice cracked over the word.

Alex sucked the skin between her teeth, fingertips skimming along Maggie’s lower back.

Maggie’s hips canted forward as a strangled gasp filled the air.

Pulling back, Alex forced herself to look as calm as Maggie had seemed earlier. “Might want to cover that up, too. Night, Sawyer.”

“I hate you.”

“Right back at ya. But you’re still planning that second date, right?”

“Obviously.”

\---

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/141303298@N07/50446870862/in/dateposted-friend/)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up! This chapter is where the fic earns its rating!

Alex and Maggie spent their second date out at a rock climbing gym on the outskirts of the city where there was enough space for a sprawling warehouse filled with bouldering walls and towering belay routes and a little side room for parties that had Alex thinking about Kara’s next birthday, even if she suspected the party space was normally reserved for kids a decade or two younger than them.

They took turns shooting videos of their best climbs, even though they were still a little sloppy, muscling their way up V1s and V2s more than actually planning their routes or doing anything technically proficient. On a whim, Maggie posted two videos to her rarely used Twitter and tagged the Galaxy Fitness account with a short message to all their followers reminding them to keep their workouts fun. Neither of them would even think to check their notifications until Kara texted Alex and told her that their fan base had just about died and gone to heaven at what they saw (accurately, Alex thought) as proof that their two favorites were dating.

By the end of the night, they were both sweaty and had chalk caked into their nail beds and callouses already forming because, as it turned out, no amount of weight-lifting quite prepared the hands for the challenge that was pulling an adult human up a wall.

Still, they pulled Maggie’s car into an unlit corner of a mostly empty parking lot and made out in the backseat until the windows were completely fogged and their legs were cramping up and their underwear were uncomfortably damp. Neither of them could stop grinning the whole drive home.

Their third date took them to a spring festival downtown where Maggie deliberated over a selection of paintings from the Queer Artist Collective’s booth, finally choosing two—one hyperrealistic street view of the city’s last lesbian bar, which had finally shuttered its doors a few months back after nearly 40 years in operation, and another that popped with bright colors and featured what looked like Dorothy walking through the rainbow hand-in-hand with the Wicked Witch of the West. Alex didn’t quite get the appeal, but it had made Maggie laugh, and she didn’t need to know any more than that.

After safely stowing the paintings and the few little things Alex had picked up for Kara in the car, they went back and sampled food from as many booths as they could until they were too full to try another bite.

They drove back to Maggie’s, fully intending to take advantage of a rare shared afternoon off from work, and instead, sleepy and stuffed, traded kisses back and forth on the couch until they fell asleep, dozing on and off until the sun had finally dipped low enough to disappear behind the trees.

When they woke, though, Maggie led Alex by the hand back to her bedroom where they slowly but surely undressed each other, fingertips and mouths reverently tracing the smooth lines and subtle curves that, they discovered, even tiny spandex gym shorts didn’t quite do justice to. Tentative touches soon gave way to boldness as need overwhelmed any lingering traces of hesitancy, the stillness of the air giving way to a chorus of _can I_ and _let me_ and _more_ and _yes_ and _don’t stop_ , until they settled back on the pillows, drawn by the pull of a satisfied kind of sleepiness once more.

\---

With every new workout posted to YouTube for their new 10-video series, their viewers grew more and more convinced of Alex and Maggie’s burgeoning relationship—a suspicion Maggie did little to quell each time she posted a short video of one or both of them demonstrating how anywhere could be a gym, and anything could become workout equipment—a local park's playground equipment, a sturdy-legged kitchen chair, a few heavy bags of groceries or a gallon of milk.

By far, the viewers favorite had been their trip out to the park, where Alex had demonstrated what she called “101 exercises to do on the monkey bars.” She’d only made it through pull ups, chin ups, and hanging sit ups before a child came over and impatiently asked if Alex was done hogging the monkey bars. A sheepish Alex had muttered something about its being dinnertime before shuffling off camera, and Maggie flipped the camera back to her own face then and mouthed, “Very impressive!” before cutting off the feed.

Soon enough, spring gave way to summer, which brought with it short videos from pools and lakes and dozens of gifs and screencaps of Maggie and Alex ogling one another in their swimwear. It also brought a new session at the gym, which came with new teaching schedules—Alex ended up prioritizing shared time off with Maggie over sleeping in every morning, which Kara insisted was a sure sign of love and Lucy insisted was a sure sign of being whipped—and new students, including a few who seemed far more interested in pushing for a joint in-person workout class than in actually learning the fundamentals of boxing. By the second week, Alex had kicked two out of her class for phone usage. Maggie, however, thought they were kind of adorable and was heavily invested in cheering on a budding romance between two teenage girls who had been coming to most of her morning yoga classes and surreptitiously inching their mats closer and closer over the weeks.

Between a surge in new memberships over the summer and the revenue from online subscription services, J’onn’s fiscal concerns began to ease up over time, and Alex thanked any deity who might exist that they’d never again see that damn publicist woman.

And after a few of the trainers at the Luthor gym challenged some of J’onn’s trainers to a Fourth of July competition—one to be streamed live to their respective YouTube channels—and summarily had their asses handed to them in front of hundreds of viewers, any lingering anxieties disappeared.

The day after the competition, J’onn offered to treat everyone who’d participated to celebratory pizza down at Angelo’s because, as Kara pointed out, even though their pizza was only the second best in the area, they also had top-ranking garlic knots _and_ a chocolate fudge lava cake on the dessert menu that she most definitely deserved after her first place victory on the obstacle course.

Alex, who was stuck teaching an after-work HIIT class, listened jealously as everyone else chattered excitedly about getting to leave early for Angelo’s happy hour specials, though they promised to order only appetizers until she got there.

“I’ll wait for you,” Maggie offered with a shrug and an easy smile.

“What?”

“You’re glaring daggers at Winn for talking about calzones. Least I can do is keep you company. Wouldn’t want you to kill anyone over a half hour of missed apps.”

“I…I’m just saying, he didn’t even compete! Also, calzones are gross.”

“He got a pretty nasty sunburn working the tech to film us all, though.”

With a loud sigh and one last glance at Winn’s bright red nose and cheeks, Alex relented. “Fine. I guess he deserves his gross calzone.”

“I’ll meet you after your class, okay?”

“You sure? You should go on time—celebrate with everyone.”

“Trust me, I’m right where I want to be.”

Still, Alex felt a little guilty as she watched everyone else traipse out the employee exit while she and Maggie waited with the skeleton crew that hadn’t competed and were, therefore, stuck covering the desk and hoping that maybe leftovers would appear in the breakroom fridge the next day. (With her sister and James in attendance, there definitely wouldn’t be any, but Alex thought it would be merciful to let them live on hope for the night.)

The 45-minute class, at least, seemed to speed by, and by the end of it, Alex was drenched in sweat but on an endorphin high good enough to have her smiling as she waved off the last of her students. She practically bounded out the door after she finished tidying up the room, popping her head into the breakroom and calling out to Maggie, “Just need to rinse off! Back in 10!”

The one nice thing about having everyone else gone was having the staff locker room to herself. Even though there were three showers, the one on the far right was notoriously fiddly, water shifting from scalding to frigid with the slightest turn of the dial, and she was in no mood for that kind of nonsense. Plus, an empty locker room meant that she could put on some music of her own choosing—loud enough to cover the top-40 pop hits that played on a loop thanks to Kara and some study she’d found online about upbeat tempos and workout endurance or something. Alex still wasn’t convinced that Kara hadn’t written it herself.

With the music on and her shower already warming, Alex stripped off her sweaty layers and stepped under the water. She hummed to herself as she soaped up, letting all the sweat and grossness of the day rinse away.

“Alex?”

She poked her head out from behind the curtain. “Maggie?”

Maggie stepped into view then, a smirk pulling up the edges of her mouth. “That’s a good look.”

Alex glared, then ducked back under the water to wash away the shampoo suds and slick back down the slight mohawk she had given herself. “Better now?”

Only, when she popped her head back out, Maggie had stripped down into just her underwear, and any other words Alex might have wanted to say got stuck in her throat at the sight. “What, uh, whatcha doing?”

“You know, no one else is gonna be down here tonight.”

“Uh.”

“And we’ll probably be too stuffed and tired and a little drunk to do anything that fun after tonight’s party.”

“Oh.”

“It seems a shame…”

“A shame,” Alex repeated, feeling Maggie’s words like a hot caress wrapping its way around her.

“But I can always get dressed again. Just take care of myself later.”

“Get in here,” Alex practically growled, reaching out and dragging a laughing Maggie forward and into the stream of water.

“Alex!” Maggie slapped Alex lightly on the chest as she pulled her underwear off, hanging them to dry over the shower curtain rod. “I was planning on wearing them tonight,” she grumbled.

“If you’ve been thinking about this, they were probably already soaked, right?”

“Why don’t you find out,” Maggie taunted, drawing Alex’s hand down between her thighs.

“Fuck.”

Whatever smartass reply might have come next was swallowed up by a shuddering gasp as Alex’s mouth dropped to Maggie’s chest and her fingers found an easy rhythm.

They’d done slow and gentle over the months spent together, taken long afternoons that stretched into even longer nights to just _be_ together. And Alex loved getting to take her time, knew she could happily spend hours working Maggie’s body up until she was stretched so taut, like a trip wire waiting for the slightest nudge to send her over the edge. And, given the rather large wet spot they’d left on the bed last time, Alex was fairly certain that Maggie liked slow, too.

But public showers—no matter how private they were at the moment—were never the right place for slow.

Instead, Alex let her fingers find all the spots that never failed to work Maggie up, listening as her breathing grew ragged, her voice hoarse as she panted for _more_ , for _harder_. And finally, with Maggie’s leg wrapped around Alex’s waist and three of Alex’s fingers buried deep inside her, Maggie came with a muffled cry, her hips stuttering against Alex’s hand.

When Maggie moved to drop down to her knees, though, Alex shook her head and pulled her up again. “Not enough time.”

Maggie’s face fell, at least until she caught sight of Alex’s fingers, slipping between her own legs.

Twin moans echoed off the tiled walls.

“ _Alex_.”

Alex’s head dropped forward, her forehead pressed against Maggie’s as her free hand hit the wall behind Maggie’s head.

Maggie’s gaze was drawn to the quick movement of Alex’s hand, the little stutter of her hips that meant she was close.

“Touch—just need a little,” Alex panted.

“I’ve got you,” Maggie murmured, her mouth nipping at Alex’s jaw as her hands cupped Alex’s breasts. “I’ve got you.”

Then Alex was whimpering her release into the crook of Maggie’s neck and letting herself be held in Maggie’s strong arms until her legs felt steady once more.

By the time they made it to Angelo’s they were nearly an hour late, though neither of them cared all that much about the garlic knots and breadsticks and beer they’d missed out on.

“Hey, Maggie,” Lucy said as they settled themselves in at her end of the table.

“Yeah?”

“Know what’s funny?”

Maggie’s eyes narrowed as she took in the smirk on Lucy’s face. “What?”

“I remember loaning you my hairdryer this afternoon.” She tilted her head to the side, as if in deep thought. “It looked pretty nice when you were done. But now…well, you seem to have gotten pretty wet over the last hour or two, huh?”

Alex’s cheeks flamed as Maggie leaned forward and whispered something in Lucy’s ear that had her jaw dropping, then a loud cackle filling the air.

“Alright, boys,” Lucy said, holding out a hand to James and Winn. “Pay up.”


	7. Epilogue

**[3 Years Later]**

@GalaxyFitnessNC: We hope all our members and subscribers are staying safe and healthy during quarantine! We’ve heard from many of you about missing your gym routines, so some of our trainers have volunteered to host live classes from their own homes. Check our FB page for the daily schedule!

\---

“Hey guys, it’s been a while!” Maggie announced, waving at her laptop camera from across the room. “Hope you’re all staying safe! Make sure that you’re checking in with yourself—seeing how you feel, giving yourself the time and space you need. You might not be feeling up for a workout today, or it might be just what you need. Either way, we’re here to walk you through some easy moves to do from home.”

Alex popped her head into the frame, then, waving as she finished setting up their little workout area. “Just getting things ready—we’re running a little late today!” She went on to explain that yoga mats were helpful but not necessary and could be swapped out in favor of towels or a carpeted floor in a pinch.

But Maggie could barely hear her over the flurry of dings indicating new comments rolling in on their live video.

> _OH MY GOD!_
> 
> _wait._
> 
> _@Alex did you not know it’s quarantine??_
> 
> _@Alex @Maggie are you quarantining together???_
> 
> _Clearly they live together. Duh._

“Alright, I’m gonna mute this so we can hear ourselves talk, but if you’ve got questions about any of the exercises and proper form, drop them in the comments once we post the video, and we’ll address them in our next live session.”

> _WE? NEXT ONE???_
> 
> _Like I said, they’re a happy couple living together. It’s that simple._
> 
> _Lookin good, ladies._
> 
> _Stop trying to make it into something it’s not. Don’t make them uncomfortable._
> 
> _ok Harold._
> 
> _Wait what did Maggie say the warmup exercise was??_
> 
> _I am looking respectfully._

Towards the end of the video, both Alex and Maggie looked up in unison. “Uh oh,” Maggie managed, at the same time Alex yelled, “Incoming!”

And suddenly a gigantic mutt that seemed all paws and ears and tail was galloping full-speed at them, vaulting over Maggie’s careful plank and crashing into Alex. As she toppled over, she shrieked with laughter as she tried to dodge the slobbery mouth intent on getting a good face lick in.

“No!” Alex cried out, laughing as she shoved ineffectually at the dog. “You have morning breath!”

> _Are you all seeing this??_
> 
> _Did badass kickboxing instructor Alex Danvers get tackled by a puppy?_

“Please, she didn’t even nap the full hour,” Maggie laughed. “It can’t be that bad.”

Alex glared, then shot a serious look in the dog’s direction. “Gertrude.” She tilted her head to the side, paws stamping as she waited eagerly for her instructions. “Go get Maggie!”

In one bounding motion, Gertrude tripped over her own paws as she spun then leapt at Maggie, catching her square on the mouth.

“Urgh,” Maggie managed as she ducked down and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Okay, fine, it’s awful.” She turned to the camera. “Anyway, sorry for the interruption. Life is a little…different these days, and working from home brings a whole new set of coworkers into the picture.”

> _SHE SAID WORKING FROM HOME! THAT IMPLIES THIS IS HOME FOR BOTH OF THEM!_
> 
> _the gays just keep on winning_
> 
> _ok but like…are we gonna talk about that dog?_
> 
> _love them but who tf names their dog gertrude???_
> 
> _Maybe it’s like Gertrude Stein … that’s pretty gay._

Skimming the comments, Alex let out a snort of laughter. “Alright, since it doesn’t look like any of us are working out anymore, and Gertrude doesn’t let anyone do anything unless she’s smack dab in the middle of it, we’ll call it a day and try again next week.” She glanced over her shoulder, spotting Gertrude with her paws all the way up on Maggie’s chest. “For now, I have to rescue my wife from a dog who still thinks she’s a 15-pound puppy.”

> _WIFE?!?!_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to @Lurkz and @Sralinchen for putting this all together and to all the writers and artists who worked hard to get you all as much Sanvers content as you could want this fall! 
> 
> I'm on Twitter and Tumblr @sapphicscholar, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the fic in the comments <3


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